Shrinking Medical Devices Get Smarter Too

摘要

Medical devices designed to be implanted in the body have gotten impressively tiny.To a great extent,this miniaturization has also decreased the invasiveness of the devices,simplifying implantation and reducing patient risk.Now,the devices are also getting smarter.Engineered to both transmit and measure clinically relevant physiological signals,two new state-of-the-art devices—a pacemaker and a deep brain stimulator(DBS)—can use sophisticated algorithms to autonomously modulate the electrical stimulation they provide.In addition to improving patient outcomes,these smart features are also expanding the potential clinical utility of the devices.